1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to video games run by or played on video game consoles and systems, and, more particularly, to a dance ring video game with multi-directional dance cues and enhanced player interaction for use with video game systems or consoles that utilize handheld controllers adapted for sensing controller movement and spatial positioning, such as with accelerometers and gyroscopes.
2. Relevant Background
There is extreme competition in the electronics industry to produce video game consoles that appeal to consumers or game players and that allow for market growth. For example, video game console or system designers have provided enhanced game play by significantly increasing graphics and processor capabilities to provide enhanced animation capabilities and responsiveness to user input. More recently, there has been a push to provide an improved game interface for video games to provide game players with a more realistic and interesting gaming experience.
An important part of the game interface is the controller used by the player to provide user input and interact with game elements displayed on a monitor (e.g., a TV screen, a computer monitor, and the like). With a typical game console, a single handheld controller is provided for each player to provide user input to control his or her displayed player character or other animated game elements. A typical controller is held in two hands and the player uses his or her thumbs to control the in-game action with buttons, D-pads, joysticks, and the like provided on an upper surface of the controller housing. The controller is arranged such that the index or other fingers are used to pull triggers or press buttons provided on the front side of the controller housing in order to shoot guns or perform other functions (e.g., make a player character run faster, make a car brake or accelerate, and so on). The majority of game consoles produced by differing companies are nearly identical in their look and feel and functionality.
In contrast, some game consoles or systems include a different type of user interface by providing a unique controller. In such systems, the game interface may be thought of as lying inside or being provided inside the controller itself because instead of using a joystick to control the game the primary game control is in the controller. The controller contains optical position sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and the like that sense tilting and rotation up and down and left and right, rotation along the main axis, acceleration up and down and left and right, and also acceleration toward and away from the screen or monitor. In many games, there is a need for ability to control more than one game element at a time (such as to target or aim and move a character at the same time). To handle this and other “two-hand situations,” a second controller or joystick pod (e.g., an analog unit with a joystick, a controller with its own position sensing components, and so on) may be attached to the main or first controller, and a player interfaces with the game by holding one controller in each hand such that input may be provided with each hand and, in some cases, the position of each hand can be accurately sensed and monitored for use in game play. In recent releases of such games, the controller and the sensing of its position are very fast and accurate, with movements often requiring only a quick flick of the wrist to move a user controlled graphic element from one side of the game display to the other.
The development and release of these new controllers has generated a demand for new video games that utilize the position/gesture-based interface of the video game consoles. The controllers lend themselves to new game-playing paradigms such as active games, including: tennis, with the controller taking the place of a tennis racket; baseball, with the controller taking the place of a bat; and sword fighting, with the controller taking the place of a sword. Video games are now being developed that encourage a cardiovascular workout for the game player with the players actively moving their arms to interact with a game such as boxing.
To date, though, most of the games have been relatively simplistic and have not fully utilized the position sensing technologies to provide interesting and visually exciting games such as games that accurately simulate dancing or that qualitatively score a player's motions as they rhythmically respond to music in a game. Existing video games involving music have been commercially very successful but typically have been limited to a simple scrolling display such as a display that requires a player to dance by moving their feet to a location on a sensing pad or moving their fingers to simulate guitar play in time to icons or cue elements scrolled from the top to the bottom of the display. Some music games specifically designed for the new controllers have also used one-way scrolling icons to prompt the player to perform a motion on a particular beat of playing music. While allowing for some fun moves such as clapping the controllers together, the use of one-way scrolling icons does not facilitate a very wide variety of player motions or support varying skill or challenge levels. In one dancing game, iconic prompts horizontally scroll sequentially inward from the left or from the right side of the screen to prompt the player to swing their controller left or right, but again the motions are relatively limited in variety and difficulty. Other video games provide on-screen prompts but often use small portions of the screen to cue the player to take an action, such as a small on-screen prompt in the upper right corner that indicates a player should shake their controller or take other actions to interact with the game.
Hence, there remains a need for new video games for video game consoles or systems that utilize one or more handheld controllers adapted for position, gesture, and/or motion sensing of the controllers. Preferably, such video games would be designed to provide an enhanced simulation of dancing, score the player's movement as he or she rhythmically responds to music playing in the game, and allow differing skill levels to be introduced to challenge the players.